Washup attachment for printing presses and the like



March 26, 1957 R. R. RICHTER 6,

WASHUP ATTACHMENT FOR PRINTING PRESSES AND THE LiKE Filed Nov. 17, 1955I {Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. RAYMOND R. RICHTER March 26, 1957 R. R.RICHTER 2,786,413

WASHUP ATTACHMENT FOR PRINTING PRESSES AND THE LIKE Filed Nov. l7, 19552 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. RAYMOND R. RICHTER United States PatentWASHUP ATTACHMENT FQR PRINTING PRESSES AND TIE LIKE Raymond R. Richter,lvlilwaukee, Wis, assignor to The Dayton Rubber Company, a corporationof Ohio Application November 17, 1953, Serial No. 392,655

9 Claims. (Cl. 101-425) The present invention relates to a novelapparatus for cleaning or washing up coating rollers or inking rollerssuch as are commonly used in printing presses and the like and is acontinuation-in-part of applicants copending application No. 328,110filed December 26, 1952.

In particular, the present invention relates to the cleaning of a trainof printing rollers, all of which are rotating in tangentiallycontacting sequence and more especially to an improved wash-up mechanismfor flatbed presses wherein the ink transfer and printing rollersalternate in the direction of their rotation.

In coating machines, it is necessary that, from time to time, thecoating material which is usually used in liquid form, be completelyremoved and cleaned from the coating or distributing roll. In the caseof printing presses, the ink is usually applied or removed through theuse of a steel distributing roll cooperating with other rolls in atrain. Since there are usually a great many cylinders to be so cleanedin any one such apparatus, it has been found desirable to clean therollers while they remain in their operating position on the machine,rather than to remove the rollers therefrom to be cleaned individually.To effect this desired objective, it has become the practice to removethe coating material from all of the rotating cylinders in the coatingchain simply by wiping, scraping or otherwise removing the coatingmaterial from only one or two of the rotating cylinders. This procedureis capable of achieving the desired result of cleaning all of therollers in the train because of the fact that the inherent cohesiveproperties of the coating material cause it to flow continuously to thepoint anywhere within the train of rollers at which it is being drawntherefrom. In order that the coating cylinders may be cleaned in thismanner, it is, of course, necessary that the supply of the coatingmaterial to the train of cylinders must be shut off; and this may beaccomplished in any of the well known manners such as simply breakingthe contacting sequence between the cylinders to be cleaned and thecylinders supplying the coating material.

The problem of cleaning a complete train of coating cylinders has thusbeen reduced to the problem of swiftly and completely removing thecoating material from any one roller or cylinder in the contactingsequence. In previous attempts to accomplish this expedient, however,considerable ditficulty has been encountered in providing means for soremoving the coating material from any one cylinder so as to achieve theuniformity and thoroughness of cleaning that is demanded. Contributingto this difficulty has been the fact that either the roller from whichthe coating material is to be drawn, or the blade or similar devicewhich is to do the drawing, will have surface irregularities which,although they are imperceptible and not important so far as the coatingoperation is concerned, prevent the wiping or drawing off member fromcontacting the cylinder uniformly at all points. Whereever upon thesurface of the cylinder the drawing oif device fails to make operativecontact, the coating material will remain on the roller, and thecontinuity of its 2,786,413 Patented Mar. 26, 1957 flow which isnecessary for the complete cleaning of all of the rollers, will bedestroyed.

To improve the uniformity of contact between the blade and the train ofcylinders, it has previously been proposed to provide either a flexibledeformable surface about the cylinder from which the coating material isto be drawn, or a flexible deformable scraping member. The disadvantagesinherent in these proposals .includethe fact that, where a flexiblewiping or drawing off member is used in connection with a hard surfacecylinder or where a rigid drawing ofi member is used in connection witha cylinder having a flexible surface, the wearing and deterioratingeffect of the hard or rigid member upon the flexible member has provenexcessive resulting in premature failure of the device and much loss oftime in repairs and replacements thereof. If, on the other hand, acylinder having a flexible surface has been brought into contact with aflexible drawing ofi device, the necessary rigidity required for acomplete and thorough cleaning action has been lost. Indeed, it hasusually developed that even where only one of the members involved inthe drawing off process was of a flexible nature, the flexibilitynecessary for the desired uniform contact between drawing off member andcoated cylinder has been so great that the necessary rigidity for athorough and complete cleaning action has been lost. Furthermore, bothrigid and flexible scrapers as used by the priorart become distorted orsag during use so that uniform wiping action over the length of the rollis not obtained.

It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide acylinder cleaning apparatus capable of effecting thorough and uniformremoval of a coating material from a train of coating rollers.

It is a more particular object of the present invention to provide sucha wash-up attachment capable of operating upon printing presses whereinthe ink transfer rollers alternately reverse their direction ofrotation.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a washupattachment for printing presses comprising a chain of ink transferrollers, the only accessible ones of which are characterized by a softsurface of a flexible material, wherein there will be no sacrifice ofthe necessary rigidity between scraping member and roll surfaces such asis necessary for a complete and efficient cleaning action. i

To achieve the above enumerated objects and others to be apparent from areading of this disclosure, the present invention provides a unitaryscraping or wiping member having a continuous base portion and a'flattoothed cylinder-contact portion, the teeth of this latter portionbeing of such depth and spacing as to allow for their independentcontact with one ofthe cylinders in the coating train. The overalllength of this blade member will be equal to the length of the cylinderfrom which the coating material is to be withdrawn, and the blade willbe positioned substantially parallel to the rotational axis of suchroller. It is further provided that this blade member will be so mountedthat it may be rotated or otherwise moved into tangential contact withsuch roller whereupon each of the individual flat teeth will beresiliently urged against the cylinder to be evacuated. In :this manner,each of the individual teeth will be free to firmly engage itsrespective portion of the cylinder from which the coating material is tobe removed and any protrusions or depressions in such cylinder will notprevent the remaining blades from similarly establishing uniform contactwith their respective portions of the cylinder. The nominal spacing thatwill separate each of the teeth will be of an inconsequential magnitude,in most cases not to exceed 1 such that the cohesive force of thecoating material will not be overcome as it is removed How of thiscoating materialwill not be interrupted.

Since it will usually be preferred that the toothed portion of. theblademember. shall be of a: relatively. thin 4 only accessible ones ofwhich are of a soft surface which is undesirable from the standpoint ofefiicient cleaning or washing up. The present invention shall thereforebe described in greater detailin connection with this pre- 'metal, itwill be necessary in order to. obtain the necesferred embodiment andadaptation of the present invensary rigidity. throughoutthe:overal1.length of the scraping tion; and for purposes of .thisdetailed description refer- .member to provideadded stiffness or:rigidity 'in'thebase once may be had to the appended drawings in which:

portion thereof.- Figure 1 is a' schematic diagram of a wash-up deviceAccording to this invention, the necessary rigidity may according tothis invention as it is applied toa typical be provided by bending apartof this base portion away flatbed press. 1 from the plane of.theteeth so that a beam will be formed. 7 Figure 2 is a perspective" ofawash-upattachment I. In addition to providing the necessary bladerigidity with according to this invention operating in contact with abut theaddition of more metal or. additional reinforcing trainofprinting rollers wherein the components of the 'parts to thebaseportion,.. this feature of the invention wash-up attachment areshown in greater detail.

:provides an additionalimprovement-when it is desired to Figure 3 is anelevational view of a complete wash-up .employ the wash-up.attachmentherein described upon a assembly incorporating the featuresof the present I train of. coatingv cylinders which will. operate fromtime invention.

to time in reverse rotational direction. .When sucha situ- Figure 4' isa cross-section :on line- 54 of Figure 3 ation'i's'encounte'red,v thebentportion of the base of the "showing more clearly the. constructionof the-scraper blade may be continued on to form a 'U-shaped or similar0' blade reversing means.

tWoQsided blade member which may be so' pivotally Referringnowto Figurel, there is shown inschematic mounted in-iuxtaposition to one of therollersthat first fashiom'a typicalfiatbed press whereinthereciprocating one.side. and .then the. other side of thetrough-shaped bed It) is composed of an inking surface 11 and a typeblade may be brought into contactiwith the same cylinder 1 or form bed12.. The illustration of Figure 1 shows this at opposite pointsthereoflIn this situation, both edges reciprocating bed as it is passing throughitsinking phase of the tWo-sid edblade. assembly will, of course, beproduring which the inking surfacell comes intopcontact .f.vided withtheflat.teethabovedescribed so that the dewith the angle. rollers 13 whichspread'the inkxfrom a sired uniform..cl eaning of the cylinder maybeachieved source of supply such as atypical fountain (not shown)notwithstanding certain departures of the. surfacethereof upon theinking surface of the. press bed. As the bed "I from true cylindricalproportions. Thus, there is proreciprocates to theleft, the inkthusdeposited upon the 'vided a pair of longitudinally spaced blades whichare inking surface Ill is carried tothe type bed or form inkingalternately contacted with opposite sides of the roll in rollers 14-1411, 15 and 15a. This inking. contact of the response to reversal ofdirection of rotation thereof. rollers 14,- 1454, 15 and'lsaiwith' theinking surface 11 Where a U-shapedblade member isv employed on while thelatter is in motion, causes the 'rollers'to rotate, presses involvingrollers capable of operating in reverse and. they, in turn, impart asimilar rotation to thedisdirection, additional blade stiffening meansmay be protributorrollers 16,1611, 17-and-17a. Theseilast describedvided: according to thepresent invention by securing the ink distributorrolls are provided in the printing operation ...base of. thetrough-shaped bladeto a catch pan which will to insure an' evendistribution of the ink over all of the be coextensive with the lengthof the blade and project inking'rollers and to provide. a limitedreserve of .ink laterally from the base of the samea sufficient distance49 to guarantee a continuousfiow of; the same to the imto catch the inkor other coating material as it is removed pression plate carried in thetype bed 12. For the most ...from the printing or coating rollers.'elficient distribution of theink, it is usnallypreferred A :further.refinement of the present invention providthat the inking and certain ofthedistributor rollers opering yet-anotherimprovement for wash-updevices to be ate in tangential contact with'a steel drum or. hardsurused in conjunction with reversally rotating roller trains 5 facedroller. In a typical arrangement as shown in such asare encountered inflatbed presses, is provided in Figure 1; the rollers M, 1411, 25,:and15a, 16a. and-17a the form of means associated with the blade ofU-shaped have a soft or flexible surface of a rubber-like material;cross-section and the catch trough fastened thereto for whereas theintermediate distributor rollers 16 and' 17 regulatingtheangularrelation between the blade mernwould be composed of ametallicsubstance; In 'certain her and the cylinder fromwhich thecoating material is 50 cases these steel rollers oscillate'axially;thereby further being drawn off. Such means are made responsiveto spreading the :ink over' the surfaces of the adjoining the directionof rotation of the roller to be first evacuated rollers.

such'that that side of the two-sided blade member toward As the bed 10again reverses its direction and moves the direction of rotation of theroller will be in-contact tothe. right to allow the inking surface 11 toagain come wi h h s rfa t be Cl d nd th scr ping force f in contactwith-the anglelrollers 13 the ink whichhas the blade will besubstantially opposed to the rotational been previously ;earried to thelinkingroller's 14, 14a, 15 fQ 0f the cylilldefand 15a is drawn 'fromthese rollers on to-theimpression Wh as i often h case, p ly n fla dplate or form within the type-bed 12. This form, thus pressesfithe-onlyaccessible rollers in the transfer chain inked, willthen come in'.contact with themediumupon have a soft flexible surface, the desired g y0f which the printing is to be -eiiectedwhich is mounted Y both theblade e e and h roller rf n sary upon the printinglrolier r8 .while the'bed lflcontinues for an efiicient cleaning action as above describedmay m i 'tdcthe' l ft at 11 Same ti b i i ink -be'preserved according tothis invention by the provision fromzthe. fountain to the if rm rollersvia the inking 50f. an additional roller of metallic surface operatingin ht ll, V

conjun tion With the lad and tro gh m mb rs and th Awash-up attachmentaccording to the present invenpivotingiicontrol mechanism cooperatingtherewith. This fi i shown a li d t thi sequence of i k transfe d isPreferably directly associated ithe distributor rollers at thesoftsurfaced roncr iea. The

' p y and the assembly must, course, be wash-up assembly may be attachedby suitable means mountedsothatthelocal roller is in't'angential contactr h to 3 b ofjgthe 'mouniifigbyackct forming with one of the. rollers inthe train of transfer rollers so an integral part of the press; suchbar" being designated that it maydrawathe coating materialifrom theserollers.

i From the foregoing.v objects and brief description of 'rnaticrepresentation of Figure l, comprises simply'asteel the-presentinvention it. can be:seen that it may bemost drawing off tube or drum 2%which'is rotatably mounted advantageously;employed:on fiatbed'spressesor the like I -upo'n-the axle. Ziand is rotated as amesultof; itscontact havingitransfernrollersecapablef ofereversegrotation tthe a'sl9.The wash-up attachment as shown in the schc with the rollen loag Thevzash up attachmentshown in Figure 1 also comprises the two-sided bladein the form of a U-shaped blade member 22 having a catch pan 23 mountedto the blade member 22 along the dished portion 24 of the former whichis contoured to conform to the base of the U-shaped member.

From the mechanism shown and described in connection with Figure 1, itcan be seen that the arrangement of the rollers and the operation of thepress is such that the inking rollers will rotate in clockwise fashionas the bed moves to the left and will subsequently operate incounter-clockwise fashion as the bed reciprocates and returns to itsinking position by moving to the right. Additionally, it can be seenthat, because of the roller arrangement, it would be impractical toapply the scraping member 22 directly to the centrally located steelroller such as 16 or 17 in order to provide the desired contact with ahard-surfaced ink carrying cylinder. To circumvent thisimpracticability, the present invention provides a wash-up devicehavingits own local drawing off roller 20 which is composed of metal andis so positioned upon the press that it will form a linear contactlongitudinally of one of the ink rollers such as 16a so that for wash-uppurposes, the hard surface of the former roller will replace the softsurface of the latter.

Since in the illustration of Figure 1 the bed is shown after it hasmoved toward the right, the inking surface 11 having left the formrollers, the rotation of these rollers immediately prior to theirseparation from the ink surface 11 was in a counterclockwise direction.This counterclockwise rotation accordingly imparted a clockwise rotationto the central steel roller 16 which in turn imparted a counterclockwiserotation to the soft surfaced roller 16a which in turn was imparting aclockwise rotation to the local steel drawing off roller 20. In orderthat the most etficient scraping action could take place during thisclockwise rotation of the local roller 20 means are provided for causingthe right side of the U-shaped blade member 22a to contact the surfaceof the cylinder 20 so that the scraping effect of the blade would besubstantially opposed to the rotational effect of the cylinder.Immediately upon the return of the reciprocating bed moving to its leftinto contact with the form rollers the rotation of all of the rollerswill be reversed and the left side 22b of the blade 22 will beresiliently urged against the surface of the drawing-off roller 20.

The particular construction of the wash-upattachment as it is applied tothe inking rollers is shown in greater detail in Figure 2 wherein thesoft-surfaced form rollers are designated at 25 and 25a, the steeldistributor roller at 26 and the soft-surfaced distributor roller at26a. The wash-up attachment itself is mounted upon the press by suitablebracket 27 clamped at one end to a mounting bar 28 and holding at itsother end the steel drawing-off roller 29. In one preferred form of theinvention, the upper portion of the mounting bracket 27 is provided withthe longitudinally extending slot 30 in which the axle 31 of thedrawing-off. roller 29 is slidably mounted... Acting upon this axle 31within the slot 30 are a compression spring 32 acting against the bottomof the axle and thumb screw 33 acting against the top thereof. When itis desired that the washing operation be performed, the thumb screw 33is loosened so that the compression spring 32 acts upon the axis of theroller to resiliently urge it into the above-mentioned desiredtangential contact with the soft-surfaced distributor roller 26a. Sincethe surface of the roller 26a is soft, the rigid local roller 29 may bepressed into a uniform linear contact therewith in spite of certainirregularities which might occur on the surface of either of therollers. When it is desired to discontinue the wash-up operation, as forexample, when it is desired to print upon the printing roll 18 of Figurel,- the wash-up attachment may be conveniently removed from operativeengagment with the ink transferring roller train by tightening the thumbscrew 33 and forcing the roller 29 downward and away from contact withthe roll 261:. In the embodiment illustrated in Figure 2, the movementof the roller 29 relative to roll 26a is attended by a change in therelative position of roller 29 and blade member 34. A considerable rangeof distances separating these members is available in View of theresilience and pivotal mounting of the latter. The particulars of theconstructi-on and operation of the flat-toothed blade member 34 and thecatch pan 35 associated therewith will be more fully explained inconnection with Figures 3 and 4 below.

In Figure 3 a wash-up attachment of the type described above is shownmounted on a bar 36 by brackets 37 and 38 supporting opposite ends ofthe axle 39 of the steel drawing-off roller 40. Acting upon this axleand cooperating with the compression springs (not shown) to control theslidable position of this axle in each of the mounting brackets arethumb screws 41 and 42. The drawing-0E roller 40 may be rotatablymounted so that it will be freely driven by the friction of its contactwith the rotating rollers of the press such as those previouslydescribed in connection with Figures 1 and 2. In the alternative, therotation of the axle of this roller 40 may be provided by a driving gear43 connected to the overall gearing of the roller train.

Associated with the axle 39 of the roller 40 at each end thereof aredepending hangers 44 and 45 having openings at each end to allow thesame to be slidably positioned about the axle 39 at the top andsimilarly positioned about the supporting shafts 46 and 47 of the catchpan 48 on the bottom thereof. In this particular embodiment, the fixedassociation of the blade catch pan combination with the axle of theroller 40 is important in that the position of the blade-pan memberrelative to that of the drawingoff roller 40 will remain constantnotwithstanding vertical movement of the axle 39 in the slots of thebrackets 37 and 38. As shown in Figure 3, this spacing of the bladepanassembly and the roller is such that, upon partial rotation of theU-shaped blade member 49, the flattoothed cylinder contacting portion50a thereof will come into contact with the roller 40.

The means by which the partial rotation of the U shaped blade member 49having the ink catch pan 48 associated therewith is controlled and maderesponsive to the rotational direction of the drawing-01f roller 40 arebest shown in Figure 4 wherein there is shown mounted slidably about theroller axis 39 a pivot washer 51 having a depending pawl 52 the lowerend of which engages a slotted rocker hub 53 which is fixedly mounted tothe shaft 47 which, in turn, is an integral part of the blade catch panassembly to be hereinafter more fully described. While the pivot washer51 may be said to be slidably mounted upon the axle 39, the fit of thesame is sufficiently snug that the friction at the contacting surfacesof the axle and washer will cause the washer to turn until the pawl 52has moved the rocker hub 53 to the stop position at which the bladeportion 50a or 50b will be in contact with the drawing-off roller 40.Once such a stop position has been reached, the friction at thecontacting surface between axle 39 and washer 51 will be overcome andthe washer will continue to slide about the axle while constantly urgingthe particular blade portion into contact with the drawing-off roller.As shown in Figure 3, the pivot washer 51 may be properly positionedupon the axle 39 relative to the brackets 37, 38, the hangers 44 and 45or the ends of the drawing-off rollers by means of spacer washers suchas 54 and 55. To control the friction characteristics of the mounting ofthe pivot washer, a thrust washer such as 56 may be employed on eitherside of the same. A similar pivoting arrangement comprising pivot washerSla having a pawl 52a engaging a rocker hub 53a and appropriatelyarranged spacer washers 54a and 55a and thrust washer 56amay be providedat the other end of the axle 39, but such additional pivoting means arenot necessary.

As explained above, the U-shaped blade member is preferably fastened tothe catchpan 48, and fastening m'ay be achieved by means of rivets orother well known means along the base ofthe blade member which in thepreferred example of Figures 3 and 4 is shown to be positioned'in andpartially" surrounded by a contoured depression within catch pan &8.Since the catch pan and the blade member are thus'an integral unit, thesupport shafts 46 and 47 may be fixedly associatedwith the catch panwhich is of a sturdier constructionthan the blade member so that therocking motion which is imparted to the rocker link 53 by the rotationof the pivot washer 51 and which is responsive to the rotation of theroller 40, will be efficiently transferred to the blade member resultingin the desired scraping action herein de scribed. t

The blade 49 as above. described is preferably composed of relativelythin material such as tempered steel, rubber, plastic or the like, witha preferred thickness, in the case of steel, of about 0.004 to 0.010inch. Other materials such as plastic or rubber may be somewhat thicker,and, in this particular embodiment, is shown to be of a U-shapedcross-section. The scraping or cylinder contacting edges Sfirzand 50b ofthis blade portion are shown to be serrated or divided into flat-toothedsegments to achieve the desired results hereinset forth; to wit: auniform scraping action resulting from an independent contact of each ofthe serrated segments with the drawing-off roller 40 so thataccentricities and irregularities in the surface 40 will not prevent athorough'scraping action by each of the individual segments. As statedin the disclosure of the above-mentioned application Serial No. 328,110,of which the present application is a con tinuation-in-part, the lengthof the individually acting scraping or wiping edges is relativelysmallcompared with the overall length of the rollers in connection withwhich the blades are operating and in comparison with the overall lengthof the scraping assembly as a whole. The preferred length of theindividual scraping or wiping edges is on the'order of 2 inches, and thesame are spaced by a nominal distance on the order 'of A inch. Inkeeping with this individual action of each of the teeth of the Scrapingedges, it is important that the greatest resiliency be introduced totheir contact with the cylinder. In this invention, the desiredresiliency is provided by the construction of the blade member from athin resilient metal, the serration of this metal at its edges, and theavailability of the thin metal blade which results from the fact thatthe thin blade may be reinforced by its contoured fit in the more rigidcatch pan. The resiliency thus provided by the present invention is mostcapably V utilized by the provision of the pivot washer mountingdescribed in connection with Figure 4 in that the same provides aconstantly urging force acting to bring the proper scraping edge of theblade member intocontact with the surface of the cylinder 40 to beevacuated, An examination of Figure 4 will disclose that, as the roller40is-rotated through the driving. gear 43 or its contact with a rotatingink distributing roller in a clockwise direc: tion, the friction of thefit between the axle 39 of the roller and pivot washer 51 will cause thelatter to rotate,

in a similar clockwise direction with the result that the pawl 52 willact upon the rocker link moving the same to the leftthcreby forcing theright-hand edge 56b of the U-shaped blade member 49 into contact withthe roller. Conversely, when the roll 40 is operating in acounterclockwise direction, the pawlv52 willbe moved to the right andtheleft edgeStla of the scraping member will be brought into contact withthe roller surface. it is thus provided that that edge of the blademember 49 which will most directly oppose the direction of rotation ofroll 40 will alwaysbe in contact with the evacuated While the presentinvention has been described tin tpar surface ,to be teeth aresubstantially 2 in. in length,

in no way to limit: the scope of thisin vention as more one of saidrollers and means for alternately resiliently urging the individualteeth onoeach of said sides into substantially linear contact with oneof said rollers where by uniform contact between blade 'androllerwillnbe established notwithstanding irregularities in the roller or theblade member mounting means. t 2.cAn apparatus according to claim 1wherein said '3. An apparatus according to claim 2 wherein. said teethare axially spaced by adistance of approximately 4. An apparatusaccording to claim 3 wherein said teeth are composed of a tempered steelhaving a thickness ranging from 0.004 in. to. 0.010 in.

5. In an apparatus for removing a coating material from a train of fluidtransfer rollers, that improvement which comprises an elongated blademember of substantially U-shaped, trough-like cross section having alength corre sponding to the length of said rollers and having the sidesdivided into a plurality of closely spaced, relatively short flat teeth,said blade'member being a unitary structure composed of a relativelythin resilient metal and the teeth thereof being capable of individualresilient action, a relatively, rigid catch pan coextensive with saidblade member and mounted thereto at the base thereof whereby rigidity isimparted to the blade member as a whole without affecting the resiliencyof the individual teeth thereof,

'means for mounting said blade and said catch pansubstantially parallelto the rotational axis of at least one of said rollers, and means foralternately,tresiliently urging the individual teeth on each of saidsides .into substane tially-linear contact with one of said rollers,whereby uniform contact between blade and roller will be establishednotwithstanding irregularities in the roller, the

,mounting means, or the catch pan mounted to said blade member.

6. A cylinder cleaning device according to claim 5 wherein said catchpan has a contoured depression and said blade member is mounted withinsaid depression to form an integral unit. r

7. In a wash-up attachment for a printing press, the only accessible inktransfer rollers of which have a relativelysoft surface,thatimprovementwhichcomprises a hard-surfaced roller rotatably mountedparallelto and in axially tangential contact with one of said accessiblesoft-surfaced rollers along substantially the full length thereof, anelongated blade member of substantially .U- shaped, trough-like crosssection havinga length corresponding to the lengthof said hardsurfacedroller and having sides divided .intoa plurality of closely spaced,relatively short flat teeth, said blade memberbeing a unitary structurecomposed of a relatively thin resilient metal and the teeth thereofbeing capable of individual resilient action, pivotally mounted paralleland in partially surrounding relationship to saidmetallic roller andmeans responsive to the direction of rotation of said metallic rollerfor ,bringing alternate scraping edgescf said U- shaped blademember,into substantially uniform-{linear 9 blade and hard-surfacedroller notwithstanding certain irregularities in the roller or themounting means.

8. In a wash-up attachment for a printing press, the only accessible inktransfer rollers of which have a relatively soft surface, thatimprovement which comprises a slidably mounted hard-surfaced drawing-0Eroller, an elongated blade member of substantially U-shaped, troughlikecross section having a length corresponding to the length of saidrollers and having sides divided into a plurality of closely spaced,relatively short, flat teeth, said blade member being a unitarystructure composed of a relatively thin resilient metal and the teeththereof being capable of individual resilient action, means forregulating the angular position of said blade and the individual teeththereof relative to said hard-surfaced drawing-off roller operable tocause the teeth to form substantially linear contact with thedrawing-off roller, and means for urging said drawing-off roller intouniform linear contact with one of said accessible ink transfer rollers.

10 9. A wash-up attachment according to claim 8 wherein said urgingmeans comprise a compression spring acting to force said hard surfacedroller against said accessible ink transfer roller.

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